A Meditation on the Ten Virgins

In the parable of the Ten Virgins, the oil in the lamps is the Holy Spirit, who refuses to enter our hearts apart from the Gospel, since he is the Comforter because he takes what belongs to the Father and the Son and declares it to us, that is, he takes Christ's sacrifice for our sins and the forgiveness he won when he offered himself to the Father on our behalf, and he speaks it into our hearts and creates a faith that could never come by our own reason or strength, a faith that is born only from the Gospel, where alone we find the power of God for our salvation.

But there are those five foolish virgins who look just like the five wise virgins.  They stand with them, but they have no oil.  They don't hear the Word of God and keep it, and so they lose the Holy Spirit and the faith he gives. They rely on their outward purity of being virgins, and looking like the others.  But the holy Spirit judges the plans of their hearts.  Read once or again the great Lutheran consensus on this:

For concerning the presence, operation, and gifts of the Holy Ghost we should not and cannot always judge ex sensu [from feeling], as to how and when they are experienced in the heart; but because they are often covered and occur in great weakness, we should be certain from, and according to, the promise, that the Word of God preached and heard is truly an office and work of the Holy Ghost, by which He is certainly efficacious and works in our hearts, 2 Cor. 2:14ff; 3:5ff.
 But if a man will not hear preaching nor read God's Word, but despises the Word and congregation of God, and thus dies and perishes in his sins, he neither can comfort himself with God's eternal election nor obtain His mercy; for Christ, in whom we are chosen, offers to all men His grace in the Word and holy Sacraments, and wishes earnestly that it be heard, and has promised that where two or three are gathered together in His name and are occupied with His holy Word, He will be in their midst.
  But when such a person despises the instrument of the Holy Ghost, and will not hear, no injustice is done to him if the Holy Ghost does not enlighten him, but allows him to remain in the darkness of his unbelief and to perish; for regarding this matter it is written: How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; and ye would not! Matt. 23:37.  SD II. 56-58

How do you keep the oil?  How do you keep the Holy Spirit?  How do you remain steadfast in the truth faith unto life everlasting?  How do you persevere and remain in Christ, apart from whom no one lives, in whom every believer conquers death and stands upright on the Day of Judgment?  We flee to the Word which we know cannot return our Lord void.  We don't wrestle inside of ourselves to create faith - it was our treacherous heart that led us away from faith in the first place and every time we've fallen.  No, if we would be certain that we have faith, then let us receive the oil of the Holy Spirit and turn the ears we have to hear toward his almighty power, which is nothing other than the good news:

Therefore God, out of His immense goodness and mercy, has His divine eternal Law and His wonderful plan concerning our redemption, namely, the holy, alone-saving Gospel of His eternal Son, our only Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, publicly preached; and by this preaching collects an eternal Church for Himself from the human race, and works in the hearts of men true repentance and knowledge of sins, and true faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And by this means, and in no other way, namely, through His holy Word, when men hear it preached or read it, and the holy Sacraments when they are used according to His Word, God desires to call men to eternal salvation, draw them to Himself, and convert, regenerate, and sanctify them.
  1 Cor. 1:21: For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Acts 10:5. 6: Peter shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. Rom. 10:17: Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. John 17:17. 20: Sanctify them by Thy truth; Thy Word is truth, etc. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their Word. Therefore the eternal Father calls down from heaven concerning His dear Son and concerning all who preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name: Hear ye Him, Matt. 17:5.
 Now, all who wish to be saved ought to hear this preaching of God's Word. For the preaching and hearing of God's Word are instruments of the Holy Ghost, by, with, and through which He desires to work efficaciously, and to convert men to God, and to work in them both to will and to do.   SD II. 51-51

Could I be a Christian if I weren't a Lutheran?  Only through the Gospel when I forget all the false teachings that tell me to look away from the Holy Spirit's word and toward my own efforts to believe or gain the certainty of my election and salvation.

It is only when someone forgets the monsters of uncertainty that are the papist, arminian, reformed, and charismatic teachings on free will, faith, the atonement, and the Holy Spirit - it is only when one actually listens to the Holy Spirit in the Gospel that he is a Christian, since faith cannot exist while one is relying on any certainty or assurance that originates in anything but the promise of the Gospel.

Anything else can be nothing but the righteousness of the Law and the assurance of the flesh.  For Moses teaches about the righteousness of the Law that if a person does the commandments shall live by them.  But if a person asks in his heart, "Who will ascend in to Heaven" he tries to bring Christ from off his throne where He is ruling in the midst of his people with his Word.  To seek for the Holy Spirit and the righteousness of God apart from the external Word is akin to trying to raise Christ up from the dead, i.e. do something you cannot do.  (Cf. Romans 10:5-8)

But what does the Scripture say?  The word is near you, in your heart and on your mouth.  It is in the Word alone that the heart can find the assurance that he will ascend into heaven and not descend into hell.  Any supposed conviction of the Spirit apart from the promise of the Gospel is works-righteousness, a being chained again to the Law and to the endless speculation of the same flesh that sought for wisdom apart from God's Word, "Of every tree in the garden you may eat, except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day you eat of that, dying you will die." 

Can we suppose then that something different will happen to us if we search for assurance of God's grace and our relationship with him apart from his word and sacraments?  Is there something more pleasant to the eyes of our reason and flesh that promises more immediate knowledge of good and evil, of heaven and hell, of assurance and doubt?  Is there a feeling that is more secure than the foundation of the apostles and prophets?  Is there a rock more steadfast than the words of Christ which will remain when heaven and earth pass away?

So now we go to Church and we hear the Word of God and partake of the sacraments whose power is alone in that same Word to which the elements are joined.  Let us not despise their power because they look so weak.  Let us not take our children to churches that offer something more appealing than the grace that was poured out on the lips of Him who was annointed with the oil of gladness more than any other prophet or teacher.  Let others hearken back to Sinai - even there they will find Moses telling them what Paul tells us, that the Word is near us now and declares that today is the day of salvation, that now is the accepted time, so that we don't receive the grace of God in vain, for that is what happens when we hear the Gospel and act as if it is anything less than the power of God for salvation to every poor sinner who believes it. 

And it is for this reason that I can never leave the Lutheran Church, no matter how many scandals rock her, or how shameful she appears to the world.  She is the true visible Church of God on earth.  Apart from her all other lights are dim, and I see with the lighthouse of God's pure word the many reefs and sandbars of the sects where I could surely shipwreck my God-given faith. 

And I have to end this contemplation to finish a sermon that says this more simply, but I leave with a hymn that this meditation has led me to.

1.

It is Your Word, O God,

That keeps your child believing,

A light upon life's road,

Sure comfort to the grieving.

Apart from what You speak

In what the Scriptures teach

There is no truth to seek,

There is no life to reach.

2. 

I cannot grasp You, Lord,

Beyond the highest heaven,

I find You in Your Word,

Where sinners are forgiven,

Where all that Christ has done

For sinners in their place

Is made my very own

Through precious means of grace.

3.

For if my faith's in doubt,

What profit would it do me

To try and figure out

How I can bring You to me?

Your Spirit's voice is clear,

And pierces through my sin,

And brings Your promise near

And works new faith within. 

4.

Faith looks to Christ alone,

Who solemnly has promised

His grace to everyone,

Nor is our Lord dishonest,

But knocks upon our door,

And sows his gen'rous seed,

And speaks to all the poor

And helps us in our need.

5.

So when our lamps are dim,

And worldly thorns constrict us,

Then let us turn to Him,

Whose Spirit won't reject us,

But calls us with a voice

That has the strength to save,

For angel hosts rejoice

When we the Word believe. 

6.

And on the Judgment Day,

That final voice shall rouse us,

And Christ will cast away

The mortal tents that house us;

And then our ears will hear

What never man has heard,

And Heaven will appear

For those who kept His Word.